The current artistic director of Candoco Dance Company in London will be returning home to Norway in September to become the new AD/CEO of the Coda Oslo International Dance Festival.

Published: Wednesday, 4 January, 2017 10:16:42 PM

The Coda Oslo International Dance Festival in Norway has announced that from September 1st this year Stine Nilsen, currently the co-AD of Candoco Dance Company in London, will become their new AD and CEO.

Ms Nilsen has been running Candoco for almost 10 years, taking the reins from the founder Celeste Dandeker in 2007 alongside another former company dancer Pedro Machado. A graduate of Laban in London in 1997, Ms Nilsen has spent almost all of her professional working life, to some degree, involved with Candoco, working on and developing inclusive dance practice. After retiring from a performing career with the company she moved easily into AD mode and, along with Mr Machedo, made Candoco one of the more interesting rep companies in the UK featuring work from a diverse range of dance makers.

The Coda festival was founded in Oslo by Norwegians Lise Nordal and Odd Johan Fritzøe in 1999 with the first full festival performance in 2002 featuring none other than the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in their opening line up. The AD from the very start was Lise Nordal, a dancer and choreographer. Ms Nordal will retire after the 2017 festival. Currently the festival runs a full programme of performances and events once every two years with a smaller festival taking place in the "off" year.

As a Norwegian citizen born in Bodø in the north of Norway Ms Nilsen will be returning home after 20 years living and working in the UK. She explained to Article19 that the recent so-called "Brexit" vote to take the UK out of the EU played no part in the decision to move back to her home country.

Mr Machedo will also be leaving Candoco this year so all new artistic management will be required at the company but it is far too early to speculate on who that would be. The company recently posted auditions looking for new dancers to work on the company's latest commission from Israeli dance maker Yasmeen Godder. That work should begin touring later this year just before the current directors move on.